Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-08-27

real trumpets and real organsf' do not
know. Some wiseacres say positively there
ore no such things in Heaven. do not know,
hut should not be surprised if the God who
/ mnde all tho mountains and all the hills and
all the forests and all the metals of tire earth
and all the growths of the UNIVERSE should
| not be surprised if He could, if He had a
mind to, make a few harps and trumpets and
organs.
Grand old Haydn, sick and worn out, was
carried for the last time into the music hall
and there he heard his own orato1o OF the
Creation" History says that as tine orches-
tro .c>Ins to that famous passage: LET there
be light" the whole audience rose and
| cheered, and Haydn waved his hand toward
Heaven and said: sit comes from there.H
Overwhelmed with his own music, he was
carried out in his chair, and as he came to
the door he spread his hand toward the or
chestra as in benediction.
Haydn was right when he waved his hand
toward Heaven and said: SIT comes from
there"
Music was born in heaven and it will ever
have its highest throne in heaven; and want
you to understand that our departed friends,
who were passionately fond Of music here, are
now at the headquarters of harmony I
| think that the grand old church tunes that
| died when your grandfathers died have gone
with them to heaven.
Again, remark that those of our departed
strong military spirit are now in armies Celes-
/ tial and out on bloodless battle. There are
| hundreds of people born soldiers. They can
! not help it. They belong to regiments in
time of peace. They cannot hear a drum or
fife without trying to keep step to the music
They are Christians, and when they fight they
| fight on the right side. Now when these, our
| Christian friends who had natural and pow
| erful military spirit, entered Heaven, they en-
tered the celestial army
The door of Heaven hardly opens but you
hear military demonstration. David cried
out; THE chariots of God are twenty thou
sand" Elisha saw the mountains filled with
celestial cavalry. st. John said: 'The
armies which are in heaven followed him on
white hOrseSn Now, when those who had
the military spirit on earth sanctified entered
glory, l suppose they right away enlisted
volunteered right away There must
needs be in Heaven soldiers with
soldierly spirit. There are grand parade
days when the King reviews the troops.
There must be armed escort sent out to bring
up from earth to Heaven those who were
more than cOnquerOrs. There must DO
crusades ever being fitted out for some part
! of Gods dominior-battles, blOOdless, grOan-
less, painless Angels of evil to be fought
down and fought hack. Other rebelliOus
worlds to be conquered. Worlds to be put
to the torch. Worlds to he saved Worlds
to be demolished. Worlds to be sunk.
Worlds to be hoisted.
Beside that, in our own world there are bat
ties for the right and against the wrong where
we must have the heavenly military. That
s what keeps us Christian refOrmerS so buoy
ant. So few good men against so many bad
men, so few churches against so many grog-
shops, so few pure printing presses against so
many polluted printing presses, and vet we
are buoyant and courageous, because while We
know that the armies of evil in the world are
larger in number than the army of the truth,
there are celestial cohorts in the air fighting
OH our side
have not so much faith in the army on
the ground as | have in the army in the air.
o, Godi open our eyes that we may see than.
The military spirits that went up from earth
to join the military spirits before the throne
Joshua, aud Caleb, and Gideon, and David,
and Samson, and the hundreds of Christian
warriors who on earth fought with fieshly
arm. and now having gone up on high are
coming down the hills of Heaven ready to
fight among the invisibles Yonder they are
coming, coming. Did you not hear them
as they swept by.
But what are our mathematical friends to
do in the next world. They found their Joy
and their delight in mathematics. There was
more poetry for them in Euclid than in John
Milton They were as passionately fond Of
mathematics as Plato, who wrote over his
door: Let no one enter here who is not &C
quainted with geometry" What are they
doing now! They are busy with figures yet.
No place in all the universe like Heaven for
figures. Numbers infinite, distances infinite,
calculations infinite. The didatic Dr. Dick
said he really thought that the redeemed in
Heaven spent some of their time with the
higher branches of mathematics.
Some of our transferred and transported
metaphysicians-whata are they doing nowl
Studying the human mind, only under better
, circumstances than they used to study it.
! They used to study the mind sheathed in the
! dull human body. Now tine spirit unsheathed
now they are studying the sword outside
the scabbard. Have you any doubt about
what Sir William Hamilton is doing in
Heaven, or what Jonathan Edwards is do
ing in Heaven, or the multitudes on earth
who had n passion for metaphysics sanctified
by the grace of God! No difficulty in guess
ing. Metaphysics, glorious metaphysics, ever
| lasting metaphysics.
What are our departed Christian friends
who are explorers doing now. Exploring
yet, but with lightning locomotiOn, with
vision microscopic and telescope at the same
time. A continent at a glance A world in
second. A planetary system in a day.
! Christian John Franklin no more in disabled
''Erebus" pushing toward the North Pole,
Christian De Long no more trying to free
blockaded "Jeannetten from the ice, Christian
Livingstone no more amid African malarias
trying to make revelation of a dark con-
tinent; but all Of them IN the twlnkling of an
eve taking in that which was unapproachahle.
Mont Blanc scaled without alpenstock. The
coral depths of the ocean explored without a
diving bell The mountains unbarred and
opened without Sir Humphrey Davy's safety
lamp.
What are Cur departed friends who fou ID
their chief joy in study doing nowl Studying
yet, hut instead of few thousand volumes
on few shelves, all the volumes of the uni
verse open before them-geologic, ornitholO-
| gic, cOnchologic, botanic, astronomic, philo-
sophie. No more need of Ieyden- jars, or
vOltaic piles, or electric batteries, standing
as they do face to face with the facts OF
| the universe.
What are the historians doing nowl Study
ing history yet, but not the history Of few
centuries OF our planet only. but the history
of the eternities-whole milleniums before
Xenophon, or Herodotus or Moses, or Adam
was born. History of one world, history Of
all worlds
What are our departed astronomers doingl
Studying astronomy yet, but not through the
dull lens of earthly observatory. but with
one stroke of wing going right out to Jupiter
and Mars and Mercury and Saturn and Orion
and the Pleiades-overtaking and passing
swiftest comet in their flight. HeISchel died
Il